A Place of Peace and Prayer: Camp St. Malo Named Colorado's Newest Shrine
- André Escaleira, Jr.
- Nov 14, 2025
- 6 min read
The beloved mountain retreat and Chapel on the Rock enter a new chapter as a shrine, uniting with Annunciation Heights to lead souls “to the heights” to encounter Christ in faith and through reconciliation.
Everyone’s favorite Rocky Mountain pilgrimage post is receiving a spiritual upgrade, thanks to an archdiocesan decree signed last month by Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila.
Camp St. Malo, along with its iconic St. Catherine Chapel on the Rock, were officially designated as an archdiocesan shrine, recognizing that the scenic spot “has long been a place of prayer and communion with God amid the beauty of creation” — a place “where droves of visitors flock, year-round, both faithful and secular,” as the archbishop said in the October 15th decree.
Established as a summer camp in 1920 and repurposed as a retreat center in 1987, Camp St. Malo has served innumerable faithful over its 105-year history. During World Youth Day Denver in 1993, Pope St. John Paul II spent a day of rest and reflection in the Rocky Mountains, visiting Camp St. Malo and its Chapel on the Rock. After a devastating fire in 2011 and a flood in 2013, the property reopened in 2017 as an evangelization and visitor center. That same year, the Archdiocese purchased a nearby camp two miles away, inaugurating Annunciation Heights as the new archdiocesan camp. More recently, in 2022, Tahosa Coffee House opened in Camp St. Malo’s St. William’s Lodge as a place for visitors and locals alike to encounter each other.
Now, as the newest archdiocesan shrine, whose territory will include Annunciation Heights’ property, Camp St. Malo also bears a canonical call to supply “the means of salvation ... more abundantly to the faithful” through the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments (canon 1234, §1).
To that end, the shrine plans to offer more regular Masses — including a year-round Sunday Mass — and other opportunities for prayer, reflection and reconciliation both for those in its territory and for those who come to visit from across the globe.
Good Stewardship
To support this growing mission and eliminate the “unnecessary complexity and confusion” of maintaining two separate organizations, Archbishop Aquila has also separately decreed that Camp St. Malo and nearby Annunciation Heights be canonically united as To the Heights Catholic Camps and Retreat Centers. The two ministries, long intertwined in practice through shared staff, volunteers, leadership and pastoral care, will now be formally united to better serve all whom God calls to the heights to encounter him.
“We’re trying to unify our teams even closer as we continue to work on our organizational health and refine things,” said Nathan Glassman, the executive director of both ministries, who will continue to direct To the Heights. “With this shrine status, that integration will continue with community Masses offered at the Chapel on the Rock. The programs and everything we do have been unified for years; the team has been unified for years. Now that we’ve developed more clarity on why we exist, it has become clear that we exist to be a place to lead souls into reconciliation with God. We’re blessed by Camp St. Malo becoming a shrine to that much better serve the faithful, serve the larger Church and bring pilgrims to that place.”
A Place of Reconciliation
When Glassman took the helm of the two ministries in 2023, he and the team found themselves in a time of discernment. What was the unique mission of Annunciation Heights and Camp St. Malo in this apostolic age? How did that mission flow from the history of Camp St. Malo and from the heart of the Church? Recognizing that the Church’s mission is broad, the team sought to find its niche in the Body of Christ.
As they discerned, they noticed God’s footprints through camp over the years. Before camp was a reality, Archbishop Aquila discerned that its patroness would be Our Lady Undoer of Knots, who “leads us in a spirit of reconciliation,” Glassman noted. Then, through the JP2 Outdoor Labs program, a three-day experiential education program open to Catholic school and homeschool students, reconciliation took center stage in the camp’s mission. Even the camp song, sung by campers throughout the year, had been highlighting this missional aspect summer after summer.
Suddenly, their mission was clear, though not new: reconciliation.
“The spirit of reconciliation drives every decision that we make,” Glassman said. “We want people to leave Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights with a greater awareness of how their relationships play a role in their faith journeys.
“God has no plan for your life outside of unity with him,” he continued. “If that’s true and we believe that, then our sole purpose needs to be unity with him. I’m really excited to see how Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights will continue to serve as a place of gathering and a place to encounter.”
For the thousands of those who have visited the archdiocese’s newest shrine this year alone, Camp St. Malo is exactly that: a place of encounter and of reconciliation.
“Camp St. Malo has always been a unique place of encountering the Lord Jesus in the sense that people are moved by the beauty of both the chapel — the architecture and the art — and the natural beauty of the mountains that surround it, and the forests and rivers,” said Father Ryan O’Neill, the chaplain of the new shrine. “I’ve heard lots of stories of people feeling moved to the point of tears even just to think about God and be open to God.”
Longtime volunteers at Camp St. Malo, Sandy and Jim Richards, agreed.
“Everybody that comes to visit has the word ‘peace’ come out of their lips at some point during their visit,” Sandy said.
“This is a place where the Spirit is really at work,” added Jim, noting that the number of annual visitors has only increased in recent years. “This is an exciting time. It’s kind of like a call to something more. We don’t know what it’s going to be yet, but we know it’s going to be great.”
A Future of Faith
With its new designation as an archdiocesan shrine, new life is breathed into Camp St. Malo and the Chapel on the Rock, Father O’Neill said.
“I think by making this a shrine and by increasing sacraments that are available, what we might see is more people realizing that this church is alive,” he noted. “It’s not just some old chapel that was built by a miner, and he forgot about it, and now it just looks pretty. It’s not ruins. It’s not a leftover building. It’s actually alive. It’s breathing. And when you encounter something that’s alive, you start to realize that maybe there’s a community here, maybe there is a culture here that I also could be a part of, and it’s called the Catholic Church.”
Uniting the missions of Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights continues the charism that began with the original camp and retreat center, now renewed for an apostolic age. Youth participating in Annunciation Heights programs and visitors to the chapel both benefit from the shared mission and expanded ministry.
“My goal for the shrine is to be more intentional with changing a three-minute picture stop into a three-hour encounter with Christ, others, creation and self,” Glassman said.
To help foster those deeper encounters, the To the Heights team is working to inaugurate new tours around the shrine property, led by Annunciation Heights missionaries who will be positioned at the shrine to welcome visitors. They are also working to create spaces for priests to retreat, rest in the mountains and serve the ministry of reconciliation.
With those missionaries, dedicated volunteers like Jim and Sandy Richards, the team at Tahosa Coffee House and an increased pastoral presence, Glassman believes the ministry is being elevated “to the next level.”
“This is the next step in its life of serving the people of the Church in the archdiocese and beyond,” he continued. “I’m excited to see what fruit will come of that. Camp St. Malo has been an instrument of God’s in such a powerful way. I’m grateful for this shrine designation, and more than anything, I see it as God’s progression in this place. I’m incredibly excited and in awe of how God continues to use both the Camp St. Malo and Annunciation Heights properties. I’m humbled that I’m playing a leadership role in this, and so grateful for the incredible team we have.”
Whether it’s frequent visitors or first-timers, Glassman invites the faithful to come again to the heights and experience this “jewel of the archdiocese.”
That pilgrimage to the mountain to encounter God, self, others and creation — a dynamic with rich history throughout Scripture — is of the utmost importance in the spiritual life, Father O’Neill said.
“It’s so important to get out of the city, whether you live in Fort Collins, Longmont, Denver or somewhere else. There’s something to stepping away from your everyday routine, even if it’s just for one Saturday or just for one Sunday, and reconnecting with creation,” Father O’Neill concluded. “I think Camp St. Malo, with its beauty, can be a helpful spiritual reset for a lot of Catholics, especially those living in the Front Range who might feel a little stale or like they’re in the doldrums of their faith, to come out and spend some time in the forest, some time in the chapel, and come to know and feel God’s love for you.”
